Waiting
by Wolf By Night
Summary: Waiting is what Winry does best.
1. One

Granny doesn't know, but she still remembers the first time her parents told her they had to leave. She was so young, but every now and then she can see flashes of their faces as they knelt in front of her, all smiles and kind blue eyes - her eyes. She remembers how cheerful her father was as he patted her head and told her to be good for Granny, and how her mother had smiled through watery eyes when she told her not to worry, they would return before she knew it.

That had been the first time she'd had to watch someone's back slowly shrink into the distance, out of her reach, and it had been the day Granny had told her that while it was okay to cry, she also had to be strong and stay confident that everything would turn out okay.

And so she had begun the waiting. Granny began to teach her how to work with automail, and she of course had taken to it like a true Rockbell. She would spend her days doodling automail designs and helping Granny with clients. She would rough-house with the Elric boys next door, even though every day she would huffily proclaim that she didn't want to play with "that stupid meanie Edward" anymore, and would earn looks of pride from Granny when Edward would complain that Winry had clocked him for teasing her again.

And every day, after telling Granny the story of her day in a single breath, she would take a deep breath, look up with large, hopeful blue eyes, and ask when her parents were coming home. She always got the same answer: "Soon."

It wasn't soon, but they did return - in boxes.

It is a day she will never forget, no matter how hard she tries. She remembers the way the soldiers who brought them seemed almost as sad as she was about the news; she remembers the way she began to wail in confusion and anger that they were wrong, her parents had said they would come home and that's what they would do; she remembers the way Granny's face seemed to break, its usual all-knowing smile shattered into anguish; she remembers the fear she had felt when she'd seen.

She remembers how quickly Granny had arranged her face into cool composure, invited the soldiers in for tea, hugged her close and reminded her to stay confident, that everything would be okay.

Winry has never told Granny that she remembers all of this, though. She never will. She knows now the importance of staying strong. She understands why Granny had composed herself so quickly, had refused to show her despair over losing her only son. She knows now that waiting can only have two results, and she has to be prepared to face them both when the time comes.


	2. Two

Winry didn't even flinch the night an armored Alphonse carried Edward's mauled and bleeding body over Granny's threshold. To this day, she feels great pride for the way she had managed to toss aside the horror she'd felt building in her gut to work with Granny on making sure Ed didn't die from the blood loss, and not once had she lost her composure, like she'd been sure she would.

He bled that night as if he'd been determined to reunite with his mother again, and Winry remembers how much she had wanted to throw her biggest wrench at him for being stupid enough to try. She refused to let him leave Alphonse alone, and so she worked furiously against him to stanch his bleeding and get him patched up. And when she and Granny had successfully bandaged his wounds and left him to a fitful rest, Winry had stayed right beside his bed to make sure he could not try something so foolish again.

She was not surprised at all when Edward told them he planned to be adjusted and ready for travel in the automail they had designed for him by the end of year. After the state alchemist had visited the brothers, Ed's eyes had been full of fire and determination, and she had known him for too long to underestimate that look. Yet she told him he was being foolish anyway, that there was no way he could be ready for travel within a year, and he would kill himself trying.

Not usually one to take warnings for his safety into account, Ed tried. Many times, he would try to advance his progress too early, Winry would have to fix the nerve attachments of his automail, and he would have to start all over, but not once did these setbacks deter him. And after a year, almost as if he had simply willed it to happen, he was almost completely recovered from his disastrous transmutation.

The day the Elric brothers told her it was time for them to leave, she felt a rush of fear flood her heart, but she never said anything. She had known of their plans to join the military for a long time, and she had known there would be no stopping them. But when the day actually came, and she watched her best friends disappear over the horizon, she felt sick to her stomach. Just another pair of backs in the distance.

Granny didn't comfort her that time - she hadn't needed to. Winry didn't cry, and she didn't ask when they would return. Instead, she shut herself in her workshop and began to design an improved set of automail for Ed. She didn't know when he'd return, or when he'd need it, but she was determined to have it ready whenever he did.


	3. Three

She doesn't even know how many times she's had to fix his automail over the years. She lost count a long time ago. And she doesn't know how many times she's yelled at him for getting it destroyed, told him to stop being so reckless, how many wrenches she's thrown at him - but none of this has ever stuck. He still went gallivanting off with that cocky grin, as if his automail had just magically broken itself. She couldn't imagine at the time the kind of danger he must have been in to get his automail messed up. He never told her, either.

The first time he'd come back with no arm at all, Winry had felt a little nauseous. She'd told him she was angry because he'd destroyed her creation, but it was the thought of Edward and Alphonse fighting something strong enough to completely shatter an automail arm that made her truly frightened.

There were very few people Winry would have done a three-day rush order for - possibly only one. She'd never have said so out loud, but she probably would have even done it for free, as well. But the way Ed had buzzed around her while she worked, she'd known there must have been a good reason for his rush. And she wanted her friends back in their original bodies just as much as they did.

She sometimes dreamt about it. Only rarely, but every now and then she would see Al's face, his real face, smiling at her like he always had, as if everything were normal once again. She would see Edward romping about on two flesh legs, giving her that classic Ed brush-off wave with a real flesh arm.

Looking back, Winry wonders if perhaps, subconsciously, she had left out that screw on purpose. She's not sure which is more believable, that she was somehow hoping he would need to come back, or that she had actually forgotten a part so important. She still feels awful for the outcome that oversight had for Ed, but when she thinks about what one little screw had done for all three of them, she can't help but smile just a bit.


End file.
